FABER AND FABER, INC. TEACHER’S GUIDE Wit by Margaret Edson “Among the finest plays of the decade . An original and urgent work of art.” —David Lyons, The Wall Street Journal 96 pages • 978-0-571-19877-1 TO THE TEACHER Margaret Edson’s powerfully imagined Pulitzer Prize–winning play examines what makes life worth living through her exploration of one of existence’s unifying expe- riences—mortality—while she also probes the vital importance of human relation- ships. What we as her audience take away from this remarkable drama is a keener sense that, while death is real and unavoidable, our lives are ours to cherish or throw WINNER away—a lesson that can be both uplifting and redemptive. As the playwright her- of the PULITZER self puts it, “The play is not about doctors or even about cancer. It’s about kindness, PRIZE but it shows arrogance. It’s about compassion, but it shows insensitivity.” In Wit, Edson delves into timeless questions with no final answers: How should we live our lives knowing that we will die? Is the way we live our lives and interact with others WINNER more important than what we achieve materially, professionally, or intellectually? How does language figure into our lives? Can science and art help us conquer death, New York Drama Critics Circle Award or our fear of it? What will seem most important to each of us about life as that life comes to an end? Drama Desk Award Outer Critics Circle Award The immediacy of the presentation, and the clarity and elegance of Edson’s writing, Lucille Lortel Award make this sophisticated, multilayered play accessible to almost any interested reader. While the vocabulary and concepts are not simple, this guide should help Oppenheimer Award you in your presentation of the material. It also points out and explores a number of themes, angles, and issues in the play of particular interest to young readers. As the play begins, Vivian Bearing, a renowned professor of English who has spent years studying and teaching the intricate, difficult Holy Sonnets of the seventeenth- century poet John Donne, is diagnosed with advanced ovarian cancer. Confident of her ability to stay in control of events, she brings to her illness the same intensely ra- tional and painstakingly methodical approach that has guided her stellar academic career. But as her disease and its excruciatingly painful treatment inexorably progress, she begins to question the single-minded values and standards that have al- ways directed her, finally coming to understand the aspects of life that make it truly worth living. PRAISE FOR WIT “A dazzling and humane play you will remember till your dying day.”—John Simon, New York Magazine “[A] brutally human and beautifully layered new play . You will feel both en- lightened and, in a strange way, enormously comforted.”—Peter Marks, The New York Times “A one-of-a-kind experience: wise, thoughtful, witty and wrenching.”—Vincent Canby, The New York Times Year in Review “A thrilling, exciting evening in the theater . [Wit is] an extraordinary and most moving play.”—Clive Barnes, New York Post “Wit is exquisite . an exhilarating and harrowing 90-minute revelation.”—Linda Winer, Newsday “Edson writes superbly . [A] moving, enthralling and challenging experience that reminds you what theater is for.”—Fintan O’Toole, New York Daily News PREPARING TO READ Since the play deals largely with questions of death and dying, it might be a good idea to begin your study of it with a general discussion on these themes. Get your students to express their own feelings on these difficult topics: coming to terms with a fatal illness; choosing whether or not to undergo painful treatment that might not be effective; euthanasia; “pulling the plug”; denial; despair or hope; and the ways that various religions help people to come to terms with death. Students could write essays on any of these topics, and sharing these essays with one another could pre- pare them for the frank yet crucial concerns at the heart of Wit. 2 Language is important to Vivian, but she has become so caught up in its semantics that she has overlooked its real purposes. The abstract poems of John Donne, her academic specialty, eventually prove almost useless in helping her come to terms with her own life and mortality. But is that the fault of the poet, or of Vivian her- self? You might want to read a few of Donne’s sonnets, particularly “Death be not proud” and “If poysonous mineralls,” as a way of preparing students to understand how they relate to the play. Do they find them dry, or consolatory? Ask your stu- dents to bring up other works of art—books, poems, plays, films, whatever they choose—that have helped them to understand mortality. UNDERSTANDING THE PLAY 1. What does Vivian’s opening monologue (pp. 5–7) tell us about her as a person and as a teacher? Is she a professor you would like to have yourself? Do you think you would find her inspiring? Intimidating? Irritating? Why? 2. At the beginning of the play, Dr. Kelekian informs Vivian that she suffers from an advanced form of cancer—“stage four” (p. 7). Do the doctors believe that the treatment they propose to give her might possibly save her life? Does she believe it? If not, why does she decide to go along with it? 3. What is the scene with Vivian as a child with her father intended to tell you (pp. 41– 43)? Did you feel you understood the adult Vivian better after reading this scene? 4. In her first monologue, Vivian says that, in the play to come, irony “is a literary device that will necessarily be deployed to great effect” (p. 6). What is irony? Can you think of any examples of irony in your world? How, in fact, does the playwright use irony? What aspects of the play would you call ironic? At what point, and why, does the play (and Vivian, as a character) eventually turn away from irony? What limitations does an ironic stance impose on us, as human beings? 5. Vivian is passionate about language: “It has always been my custom,” she remarks pointedly, “to treat words with respect” (p. 41). How do her experiences in the hos- pital change her ideas about language—and about what language is and is not ca- pable of expressing? When Vivian says, “My only defense is the acquisition of vocabulary” (p. 44), is she being straightforward or ironic? 6. In the scene in which the medical students undertake Grand Rounds with Dr. Kelekian, Vivian says, “Once I did the teaching, now I am taught” (p. 37). What does it mean to Vivian to lose her power? 3 7. Vivian has no visitors in the hospital, at least not until Professor Ashford arrives. What has caused her isolation? What aspects of her personality have kept her at a distance from other people? 8. After her initial discussion with Dr. Kelekian, Vivian says, “I know all about life and death. I am, after all, a scholar of Donne’s Holy Sonnets, which explore mor- tality in greater depth than any other body of work in the English language”(p. 12). What has she learned about life and death from Donne? How do her experiences as a cancer patient change her ideas about mortality? How useful do her studies prove to be when it comes to confronting her own end? 9. Vivian has lived her life according to a set of principles she has never questioned and with a set of skills that she has fine-tuned as she has gotten older. Do these prove to be insufficient at the end of her life? How do these skills serve her in the new situation in which she finds herself trapped? 10. Professor Ashford, in her scene with Vivian as a young woman, stresses the dif- ference—an important one to her—between being sentimental and being a scholar (pp. 13–14). Is she saying that scholars cannot be sentimental? Does she differenti- ate between sentimentality and emotion? What message does she try to get across to Vivian during this meeting, and how successfully does she in fact communicate it? What does the scene tell us about the kind of scholar, and the kind of person, Vivian will become, and about the differences between her and her mentor? Does Professor Ashford strike you as emotionally limited in the same way that Vivian is, or do you see her as a fuller and more “human” person? 11. In what important ways are Jason and Vivian alike? Do they ever recognize their basic similarities? What does Vivian learn about herself from watching and talking to Jason? What sort of influence do you think Vivian had on Jason when he was her student? Has his professional attitude to some degree been formed by hers? 12. Vivian is “uncomfortable with kindness” (p. 34). What other instances of this discomfort can you find? Why might she have become this sort of person? 13. How would you describe Jason’s relationship to Vivian? Does he see her purely as “research,” or as a vulnerable human being? How does he show his very genuine respect for her? 14. What does the playwright mean when she says, “The play is not about doctors or even about cancer. It’s about kindness . ” How is Wit about kindness? 4 15. After the classroom scene, Vivian tries to express her emotions: “I feel so much—what is the word? I look back, I see these scenes, and I .